This invention relates generally to an educational aid for use in teaching a student how to play keyed musical instruments and more particularly for displaying which notes should be played and for comparing the notes which are actually played by the student to the notes that should be played and for signalling to the student whether the student has played correctly.
A broad variety of electronic and mechanical devices for aiding in the instruction of musical instrument play have been described in the past and many are found in the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Class 84, subclasses 464 and 478.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,256 discloses an apparatus having a light and a switch associated with each key which advances at a continuous uniform rate and compares single notes of a composition to played notes. It does not, however, accomodate chords and does not synchronize with the student.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,771,406 illustrates a digital data apparatus which displays single notes which should be played but can neither accomodate chords nor detect errors.
There is, therefore, a need for an instructional device which can operate in synchronism with the student's play, which can accomodate chords as well as a melody of single or multiple notes and which can detect and signal the occurence of any error including the playing of additional notes beyond the correct notes. There is further a need for a device which can also provide other types of musical exercises such as the random selection and display of notes in literal and octive notation for comparison with played notes and which can also be used by an instructor for the preparation of additional exercises or compositions for use by the student.